The China Banking Regulatory Committee (CBRC) recently announced that it will extend its Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors (QDII) scheme to allow Chinese commercial banks to invest their clients’ funds in Singaporean stocks and funds if certified by the Singapore monetary authority. The QDII scheme is part of the country’s drive to open up to global financial markets and it has continued to grow in China since its introduction in 2006. We discuss the QDII scheme in more detail and describe the history of its introduction in this issue’s Finance A-Z.

The start of the new year has once more been a watershed in China’s compliance with World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles. It has now been six years since China became a member of the WTO and one year since the country completed the opening up of its banking sector to foreign competition. This year the new Enterprise Income Tax (EIT) law is designed to bring China’s business environment more fully in line with WTO principles by creating a more level playing field for companies operating in China.

Financial reforms are playing an important role in the transformation of China’s banking sector, developing a more competitive environment for domestic and foreign banks. The Shanghai branch of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) announced that between January and June foreign banks achieved a pre-tax profit of RMB 1.484 billion, an increase of 21% since the beginning of the year. The increase was attributed to the banks’ renminbi retail business.

At the end of April, four foreign banks – HSBC, Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of East Asia – were officially granted local status in China, enabling them to begin trading in RMB. The banks are the first foreign banks to be granted local status following the regulations announced in November 2006 in compliance with China’s WTO agreement.

Trade in China has been growing at a phenomenal rate. Following China’s entry to the WTO in 2001, China became the third largest trader of merchandise in 2004, a position it has since maintained. As the role of the corporate treasurer has evolved to encompass a wider range of activities, the scope for treasurers to become involved in the processes surrounding trade has correspondingly expanded. The processes involved in selling and procuring goods can often be inefficient and paper-intensive, resulting in cash being tied up rather than being used more effectively elsewhere in the business.

The 11th December 2006 was the fifth anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The anniversary marked the deadline for China to complete the programme of reforms set out by its agreement with the WTO. The most important of these reforms, as far as corporate treasurers are concerned, relate to the Chinese banking industry. The full implications of these measures are discussed in this quarter’s Treasury & Finance News section.

There have been significant changes in China’s foreign exchange arena in recent years. Even in the past 18 months, many of the regulations governing foreign exchange have been relaxed and new policies have been introduced. In July 2005, the decade long policy of pegging the renminbi to the US dollar came to an end and a new regime was introduced.

Regulatory changes are something of a recurring theme in the Chinese financial sector, due to the government’s ongoing reform programme. The last few months have been no exception, with the PBOC’s recent introduction of a raft of new rules – the PBOC Six Measures – concerning the administration of foreign currency in China. The measures substantially extend the range of foreign currency activities that companies based in China can engage in. The full implications of these measures for the corporate treasurer are discussed in this quarter’s Treasury & Finance News section.

Banking practices and payment systems in China differ significantly from those in the US and Europe. Consequently, treasurers in China – particularly those working for foreign multinational companies – have to adopt a different approach to those taken by their colleagues in other countries. While the recent deregulation of the financial system has made it easier to operate a treasury in China, the rapidly changing nature of the Chinese market adds to the challenges faced by the treasurer. The China Quarterly Review explores these issues in depth…